Gareth Peirce

There are probably few people on this list more private than Gareth Peirce. Despite one of the longest legal careers in the UK, she shuns the limelight. Her fame derives purely from her cases – a 30-year run of groundbreaking battles against miscarriages of justice that have changed legal history.

In the 1980s she represented the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, victims of the witch-hunt against Irish men during the height of the Troubles. More recently she has become a key architect in the fight against draconian counter-terrorism measures, representing the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead at Stockwell tube station in a bungled terrorism raid, and Moazzam Begg, who was detained in Guantánamo Bay. Her work defending those who are at the sharp end of state power has led many human rights activists to describe her name as "synonymous with civil rights".